Proverbs 18:4,21

The words we use are very important.

We need to be semantically, as well as theologically, sound.

May our words be few and full.

John 9:11

“Well then,” they said to him, “how did your eyes get opened?” “It was the man called Jesus!” he replied. “He made some mud; then He spread it on my eyes and told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went, and washed, and I could see!”

God is faithful and His promises are all true.

Act on them as if they are true.

As Anselm said so long ago, we believe in order to understand, not the other way around. Understanding comes from belief. Believing is seeing. It is only when you step out in genuine faith that your eyes are opened and you finally see what has been there all along.

I love the simplicity of this verse:

“He told me what to do, I did it, and I was healed. I could see! BOOM!”

[my translation]

Jesus tells us what to do. Do it. And you will see.

Like never before.

Proverbs 17:3

A crucible for silver, and a smelter for gold, and the Lord is a tester of hearts.

The crucible and smelter were small clay vessels in which metals were melted at very high temperatures to refine them. To be tested is to be evaluated to see if something is genuine. The process of testing can bring about purification.

I hear God saying to me, “It doesn’t matter if you do or don’t do a million things for Me as much as it matters to Me that I have your heart. That’s what I really want.”

Scripture, I believe, is best read on the spiritual level, or heart level. Don’t get me wrong, I do think good, solid Bible study has its very rightful place, to keep us from going too wacky with it, yet missing the heart of God in Scripture is detrimental to our growth as human beings made in God’s very image. I try to ask myself every verse I read, “What is God the Holy Spirit [ the Author] saying to me thru this?” What is He saying to my heart?

Please note this is different than “What does this mean to me?” That’s when you can easily venture into some dangerous territory, e.g. “I don’t think Jesus really rose from the dead, people just saw visions of Him because they were so distraught and wanting to see Him.” Just a little elementary study of Scripture will show clearly that that’s not what the evangelists who wrote the gospel accounts were trying to convey. Asking “What is God saying to me thru this Scripture?” is a quite different approach and mindset. In this posture, you are open, willing to hear from God, and ready to obey what He may present to you, as opposed to just thinking about what something might or could mean–there’s plenty of scholarly McScholartans out there for that!

John 8:12,31-32

“I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows Me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life…If you continue in My word, you really are My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The light refers to God’s revelation, or disclosure, of Himself in the incarnation. Jesus was the perfect revelation of God, our Creator. Waking up to this heavy reality takes us out of sleep walking thru life and into the truth, and therefore, freedom. Freedom because you no longer have to grasp for the meaning of life, stumbling around in the dark, in danger of stepping on Lego pieces which hurts like hell! (OK, I’m alright now, just had a flashback.) The light is there for you, and turning towards it is as simple as flipping a switch on the wall. Just turn around.

Reminds me of the time I went canoeing on a youth trip. As many of you know, I’m quite hydrophobic, and as fate would have it, my worst nightmare did in fact occur–the canoe tipped over. I was flailing about like an octopus on speed, struggling to get above the water and breathe when my buddy Todd said, “Just stand up!” I was in about three feet of water. “Oh, right. I’m OK now.”

So simple, and we make it so difficult.

What if God’s essence actually walked the earth in the form of a human being for thirty-some years at a definite point in history? If that is really true, are we not obligated in the most profound sense to pay the utmost attention to this “man”? Not only His life on earth, but His Spirit now?

There is no reason whatsoever to stumble thru life anymore, wondering what we should be doing, how we should be living. The light has been revealed and is to be followed. THEN the path is made clear, guaranteed, because it is God’s promise, and from what I understand, He never ever lies ever ever.

See Proverbs 3:5-6 also.

Proverbs 16:1-3,9

Real power, real truth, real peace comes from seeking God and His wisdom, not our own mortal and futile answers to life.

The great concerns of our souls must be committed to the grace of God, with a dependence upon and submission to the conduct of that grace (2 Tim. 1:12); all our outward concerns must be committed to the providence of God, and to the sovereign, wise, and gracious disposal of that providence. Roll thy works upon the Lord (so the word is); roll the burden of thy care from thyself upon God. Lay the matter before him by prayer. Make known thy works unto the Lord (so some read it), not only the works of thy hand, but the workings of thy heart; and then leave it with him, by faith and dependence upon him, submission and resignation to him. The will of the Lord be done. We may then be easy when we resolve that whatever pleases God shall please us.

If men devise their way, so as to make God’s glory their end and His will their rule, they may expect that He will direct their steps by His Spirit and grace, so that they shall not miss their way nor come short of their end. But let men devise their worldly affairs ever so politely, and with ever so great a probability of success, yet God has the ordering of the event, and sometimes directs their steps to that which they least intended. The design of this is to teach us to say, If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that (James 4:14-15), and to have our eye to God, not only in the great turn of our lives, but in every step we take. Lord, direct my way, 1 Thessalonians 3:11.

-Matthew Henry

John 7:14-18

Then the Jews were amazed and said, “How does He know the Scriptures, since He hasn’t been trained?” Jesus answered them, “My teaching isn’t Mine but is from the One who sent Me. If anyone wants to do His will, he will understand whether the teaching is from God or if I am speaking on My own. The one who speaks for himself seeks his own glory. But he who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”

I resonate with Jesus here as I never finished college or had any formal Bible training. But guess what, it does’t matter at all because we all have access to the best teacher. That is where our learning should actually come from, not just what others tell us, tho that can be efficacious as well.

We must quit trying harder (trying everything besides God) and start pursuing the person of God Himself. It is insanely good and powerful!!! I have found this to be so true that if you resolve in your heart to do God’s will and not your own, He will show you truth and you will know it.

Whose glory and reputation am I seeking to promote?

If mine, forget it, if God’s, your ministering will penetrate hearts and change lives. I have witnessed this.

Streams of living water will flow from our hearts via the Holy Spirit only as we seek Him alone [vv.38-39].

For we are not peddlers of God’s word like so many; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in his presence. [2 Cor. 2:17]

Proverbs 15:12

Mockers hate to be corrected, so they stay away from the wise.

Isolation.

Here it starts, in the heart. You don’t want to be corrected. You don’t want to be challenged. So you withdraw so as not to face truth. This is what we fight in our culture because it is so easy to hide in our very non-communal society.

I’ve seen this over the years. It is one of the easiest things to detect. It’s as simple as not seeing someone for a while at church, or group, or hearing from them on the phone. Most every time they are withdrawing and are not in a good place.

Isolation is the inevitable human reaction to being in a place of bad thinking and heart sickness. We do ourselves a double disfavor because YHWH created our brain to need both good thinking and joyful relationships.

In our left hemisphere of the brain is where we process correct and good thinking, and in the right hemisphere we grow in the context of joyful relationship- someone is glad to be with us. If we are healthy in only one of these areas, we are only half the person we could be, who God created us to be.

So when your thinking goes awry, and you get down in the dumps, you need someone to lift you up, ultimately God, yet He also works thru other people in some sort of community aspect. Therefore withdrawal in these times takes you even lower. Conversely, if we are abundant in joyful relationships with people with bad thinking and ungodly lifestyles, well, we know what that looks like-many people’s college and younger years I guess. Like maybe you belong to a swinger’s club and it’s a real tight knit community, but…you see what I’m saying.

John 6:40

For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and trusts in Him may have eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day.

Like those in the OT who had only to look upon the snake fastened to the pole to be healed, so we only have to look to Jesus fastened to the cross with the eyes of our heart, the gaze of our soul, and we will be healed in a way only He can perform.

We can live a life of peace and freedom only thru divine intervention.

There is no plan B.

Do I really trust in Jesus as God’s ultimate plan of mediation and salvation?

Do I look to Him for everything? Or do I find myself still trying to do much on my own? Striving to do that which I cannot do and which only comes thru divine action. [We’re not talking here of praying to God to supernaturally pick up my spoon and put cereal in my mouth. He has equipped me to do that myself (tho it’s only because of Him that I can), but anyway…]

There is the mystery of divine sovereignty. And I wonder if I have truly given myself up to that. To the God I believe to be infinitely good and who knows what He is doing.

Trust.

He says He desires my trust.

So this speaks to me that whenever I am worried or frustrated about something, especially with regard to people, that I am not ultimately trusting Him who has everything, who sees everything, who can do anything.

The Holy Spirit is telling me, “You’re feeling responsibility to make happen what only I can make happen. You just do your portion. Rest in the work I give you to do. Listen to Me and only to those people who listen to Me. One tiny but genuine amount of faith is the most powerful action in the universe, because that is how I work, thru your faith.”

How many times I have prayed in earnest about something, consistently over time, believing God would act, and I witnessed His powerful action. This is the inimitable time saver and stress reliever. Amen.

John 5:14

“Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.”

Here Jesus presumes the common Jewish view that illness was a punishment for sin. But later, when His disciples ask Him why a certain man had been born blind, He denies that it had anything to do with the sin of either that man or his parents (John 9:3). Instead, it was to manifest God’s glory. Thus, sometimes healings undo a punishment for sin; other times there is no relation between health and obedience, or between sin and sickness, beyond the general observation that all evil came into the world through original sin.

-from Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels

John 5:41,44

“I do not accept glory from men…How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that comes from God alone?”

Perform for an audience of One.

The divine nod of approval is completely sufficient.

Proverbs 14:6

A mocker seeks wisdom and does not find it, but knowledge comes easily to the perceptive.

A mocker’s pride keeps him from finding wisdom, but an open person, humbly searching, will find what YHWH has made readily available to all.

We’ve all known people (sometimes ourselves) who are always struggling with others, with money, with drama…and many times it can probably be traced to this here. We search the world for its wisdom before going surrendered to God.

Proverbs 13:1

The stronger person can help the weaker person.

Only if the weaker is willing.

There was a saying among the school social workers I heard when I worked at Outreach, Inc. that has always stuck with me:

“I can’t care more than you do.”

No movement will actually occur if this is the case.

You giving yourself to God is everything.

As one book title cleverly states >>

Jesus+Nothing=Everything

John 4:13-14

Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give them will never get thirsty again-ever! In fact, the water I will give them will become a well of water springing up within them for eternal life.”

When we drink from the Source for our thirst in life, a well is formed in our own inner self continually pouring out life. Filling yourself with truth and goodness will cause a living spring of truth and goodness to flow from you and comfort yourself as well as others.

We are at our best when our good works are simply an overflow from our inner self being filled with the divine presence.

Focus on the roots not the fruits.

John 3:3

Yeshua answered him, “Amen, amen I tell you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” [TLV]

I’ve been thinking a lot of regeneration of the heart, which only God can do. This is absolutely necessary in order to follow Him, in order for anything to do with the kingdom of God to truly make sense at all to a person. So I wonder, have I been asking the blind guy to look at the beautiful painting on the wall, then wondering why he can’t see it, or even look at it? Do I ask the spiritually blind person to follow God before his or her heart has been regenerated by God?

I grew up in a religious world that was heavy on conversion and light on discipleship. I have seen a swing of the pendulum away from this, some for good, but some seemingly away from the importance of that initial act of conversion, of the regeneration of the heart. It’s easy to slip into a saving of ourself by works of our own praxis, yet with great intention and desire for truth.

The problem with overemphasis on conversion is that it is only the beginning of the journey, necessary as it is. Then begins the life of running after God. But if God has really regenerated your heart, and you have been born from above, I believe totally that you will have a thirst for God that is both satisfying and paradoxically constant. You will automatically run after Him.

So I’m thinking out loud here, I know, but doing some good wrestling with this monumental concept laid out by our Master Teacher. Really, it takes even more pressure off us. Bearing fruit is not converting people at the heart level, but living and giving God’s truth and love. Much fruit will come of this, for sure.

Jesus told me a couple years back, “I’ll call them, you lead them to me.” This is what makes ministry pretty simple. I understood Jesus to mean a calling at the heart level, that which is impossible for me to do. All I must do is follow Him from my heart, and provide space, guidance,  and pathways for others to get closer to Him.

I leave much up to mystery.

Does any of this make sense?

Is anybody reading this?

Proverbs 12:3,12

The root of the righteous will never be moved.

The root of the righteous bears fruit.

Always concentrate on the roots not the fruits.

A tree with no roots will never bear fruit. All we generally see is the fruit of the tree, the good works of a person or church. But where do they flow from? From that which is unseen.

…we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we can see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. [2 Cor. 4:18]

All the authors I love and am encouraged by spent much time alone with God. Loving Him, being loved by Him. Much time in silence just thinking. Those are the roots from which the fruit flows.

We do not emphasize this enough I’m afraid.

What is your root system?

John 2:5

His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”

We can do whatever Jesus tells us in complete trust because He is Ben-Elohim, the Son of God. He had (has) the most intimate possible relationship with YHWH, and is our mediator between us and Him. He cares infinitely for us and loves us beyond our comprehension. So when He tells us to do something, we can rest in peaceful solidarity that it is something for our good, for our blessing. Even if it sounds a little crazy. Just do it. Trust.

“We serve a God who is infinitely good and who knows what he is doing.” -Brother Lawrence

Of course, we must be listening in order to hear His loving instruction. And we must believe that He speaks to us. A thousand distractions want to take us away from the voice of God everyday. In our culture of noise, I deeply believe that we must set aside time to just listen to Him. The competing voices are too loud and too many. We can be listening all day long in the midst of the noise, for sure. But without that down time, that sort of training, it will be very difficult to hear Him.

I have found Hannah Whitall Smith’s guidance helpful concerning our hearing from God:

How do we receive guidance from God? How can we know His voice? There are four ways in which He reveals His will to us: (1) through the Scriptures, (2) through providential circumstances, (3) through our own higher judgement, and (4) through inward impressions from the Holy Spirit. I call these four ways the four “voices” of God.

Where these four harmonize, it is safe to say God speaks.

Proverbs 11:6

The godliness of good people rescues them, but the treacherous are trapped by their desire.

Pursuing God brings freedom. Living for yourself enslaves you to your own desires.

It is horrible to live in a prison of your own desires, for they are a cruel taskmaster, demanding nothing short of your entire life for sacrifice at its oppressive altar.

Only God brings true soul-level freedom.

What you really want is for desires to take their proper place so you don’t have to bow to them, worship them, and feed them. This is what running after God will bring for you.

Following Jesus does not mean you suppress all you want to be with Him, all the while telling yourself to not do or have the things you really want. What happens is, through genuinely following Him, your desires for all that is not Him or of His kingdom fade away over time. Things you thought were so great and important actually lose their appeal. You see them for what they really are.

Now that is freedom. And that is what He will do for anybody who believes and follows Him.

Proverbs 10:3

The Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but He casts away the desire of the wicked. [NKJV]

The Lord does not let good [righteous] people go hungry [starve], but he keeps evil people from getting what they want. [EXB]

The Lord will not let the righteous go hungry, but He denies the wicked what they crave. [HCSB]

God won’t starve an honest soul, but he frustrates the appetites of the wicked. [MSG]

The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked [NIV]

The Lord will not let the godly go hungry, but he refuses to satisfy the craving of the wicked. [NLT]

The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked. [NRSV]

The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked. [KJV]

Filling yourself with God will not leave you wanting anything.

John 1:18

No one has ever seen God; but the one and only God, in the Father’s embrace, has made Him known. [TLV]

Nobody has ever seen God. The only-begotten God, who is intimately close to the Father–he has brought him to light. [KNT]

The phrase “in closest relationship with the Father” (eis ton kolpon, John 1:18) conveys Jesus’ unmatched familiarity with the Father, which enabled him to reveal him in an unprecedented manner. The expression serves as an idiom for greatest possible intimacy, showing how close the evangelist considered Jesus’ relationship with the Father to be. While no one, including Moses, has ever seen God, Jesus made him known in a unique, climactic, and definitive way.

-from A THEOLOGY OF JOHN’S GOSPEL AND LETTERS

We follow Jesus because no human has ever been in closer intimate relationship with God. If you want to be close to God, get close to Jesus. If you want to know what God is like, He’s just like Jesus.

Jesus was and is the ultimate revelation of God. He is the mainline to YHWH.

You will never exhaust the person of Jesus Christ in this life. You cannot study Him too much. Our life is to be characterized by our fostering of an intimate, loving relationship with Jesus of Nazareth.

This is peace.

There is no Plan B.

A life of joy and shalom will flow only from your intimate connection to Jesus Christ. And it will happen. If you live from the center out. Spending time alone with Jesus will manifest in more good works than you could possibly do on your own by trying hard.

Center your life on the person of Jesus the Messiah, then live from your center.